A U.S. District Court judge in Boston found probable cause on charges of mail and wire fraud against John Silvia Jr. of Somerset. The charges could result in a 20-year jail term in a case against the disbarred lawyer.

The charges say Silvia, 64, of 305 Foley St., failed to invest $300,000 in a real estate and “performance bond” scheme with funds given to him by two people: a friend who is now deceased and a Boston nurse helping to treat a relative of Silvia’s. There could be additional related fraud allegations, authorities said.

The Massachusetts Securities Division of the Secretary of State’s Office initiated the complaint with federal authorities, which comes nearly two decades after the state office brought charges against Silvia for selling unregistered securities and defrauding about 400 investors of $20 million in the mid- to late 1990s.

He repaid only about 28 percent of the investments lost by the hundreds of citizens in a Somerset recycling company investment scheme, which he was ordered to repay in a civil decision upheld on appeal in 1997.

The latest fraud charges come a decade after Silvia, who formerly had a law office on North Main Street in Fall River, was disbarred after allegedly defrauding a client who had suffered tremendous personal catastrophe.

Silvia was representing a man whose wife and unborn child were killed and whose son was seriously and permanently disabled in a March 1989 car accident, according to the Dec. 5, 2003, disbarment decision by Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Francis X. Spina.

Silvia persuaded his client to sign over $300,000 of a $700,000 settlement from the fatal car accident, which had not been repaid as of his disbarment. Silvia, who has lived in Somerset most of his life and graduated from the town high school, also “induced” his client to sign over $65,000 of a $100,000 insurance settlement that the lawyer said he’d use to pay medical bills, said Spina’s decision for the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers.

Instead, Silvia used the insurance proceeds for his own purposes.

“The board determined that the facts amply support not only intentional commingling and misuse of client funds, but a course of fraudulent and deceptive conduct undertaken for (Silvia’s) own pecuniary benefit,” Spina wrote.

When the office of Secretary of State William Galvin on Feb. 7 charged Silvia with not investing $300,000 for two clients, he alleged Silvia misappropriated those funds from the deceased friend and nurse for cash gifts to family members, payment of life insurance premiums and Red Sox season tickets.

U.S. District Court Judge Sorokin did not set another court date.

Page 2 of 2 - It’s expected evidence would be brought next to a grand jury or Silvia could enter a plea in the case.

Silvia lives in a single-family home near the center of town that’s listed as containing 3,000 square feet with 11 rooms and 4½ bathrooms on a 13,300-square-foot lot.

It’s assessed at $412,600, and Silvia and his wife purchased the home, when it was smaller, in 1978 from Michael and Theresa Foley for $73,100, according to town records. Those records previously incorrectly listed the sale price as $731,000, assessor Pamela Lee said.